Friday, 18 July 2008

Stuarts Well

As promised we travelled to Stuarts Well for Thursday night and ……. Yes Dinky was there and performing at his stunning best.However first of all, believe it or not there were other treats in store before we spent a very entertaining evening with Dinky.When we arrived we quickly settled into the free camping area provided at the Roadhouse which was entirely on sand and very dusty but quite adequate considering we expected to be exploring during the day and in the roadhouse for dinner and the ’show’ in the evening.After taking the van off we set out for a 4 wheel drive experience which you can imagine one half of the travelling party really enjoyed! We jolted our way out to Rainbow Valley which can only be described as extraordinary and somewhat reminiscent of a Mad Max set in its dry and desolate yet very beautiful landscape. Well worth the visit and we can only imagine how beautiful in another way it would be when there was water in the now cracked and dry clay pan.We returned to the Roadhouse and enjoyed a cleansing ale and lemon squash or two and ordered dinner which was a magnificent piece of braised scotch fillet steak that had been cooking all afternoon in a red wine and mushroom sauce. We could smell it from our van and just had to have it with all the vegies. Lucky we’re exercising a lot!Then it was on with the Dinky show! Hard to describe really except Dinky’s playing of the piano and ‘singing’ are extraordinary and not to be missed if you are in the area. We were also educated in the early days of tourism here. Jim Cotterill who is Dinky’s Alpha Male is the son of Jack who opened up Kings Canyon and has wonderful tales to tell of the early years and what had to be done to enable tourists to do what we are privileged to be doing on this trip.After Jim had spoken for a little while Dinky again took the floor or the piano and gave another stirring rendition or whatever it is he is singing and the show was over. What a night and certainly a highlight for us.Friday is a short drive to Alice Springs where we intend to spend four nights and we are sure they will be busy ones.